SLIDE POOL!

Jer is on vacation this week and we have been having a great time! Yesterday we packed in some bouncing at Boomerang's, lunch at Empress of China and a trip to the slide pool after dinner. I was bound and determined to get pictures of Colin coming down this slide...you have never seen a more excited boy! I managed to get a couple of cute ones, but it is really hard to take pictures of people flying down a water slide. Colin continues to have ZERO fear of water. The first time he went down, Jer arched his back and laid all the way down on the slide, thus turning it into a luge. They flew down the slide and both Jer and Colin went all the way under water at the end. I was certain Colin would come out screaming (it was rather scary to watch!) but he just wiped the water out of his eyes and yelled, "MORE!". How cute are these boys?!

Below are a couple of pictures from Boomerang's. The lighting in those bounce houses makes for bad quality pictures, but Colin is adorable none the less. He seems remarkably bigger this week to me...I think he may have hit a growth spurt. He seems slimmer and much taller at the moment. I can't wait for his two year appointment later this month for the official stats. Today has been fun, with the exception of the 100 degree heat. We bought Jackson's birthday present (he is FOUR YEARS OLD today! I love you, sweet nephew!) and had lunch at Five Guys Burgers. It was delicious and Colin loved it so much that he actually stayed in his seat and ate for longer than 30 seconds, which is a miracle. Anytime I finish a meal at the table in the restaurant is cause for celebration. This afternoon we are having a pre-4th of July swim and dinner at Jer's parents house and tomorrow we are heading to my parents for Jackson's party and 4th of July weekend. This is a very busy and happy week!

Feeling HOT HOT HOT!

It is flipping HOT outside. As usual in Texas, we jumped from 80 degree days to 100 degree days without skipping a beat. Colin and I have been spending as much time as possible in air conditioning or at the pool. Days at the park are done until fall...no water, no me. :-) We met friends at the splash park yesterday and good lord have mercy was it HOT! Colin seems to have no concept of the temps because he spent most of the time on the playground instead of in the water. I was following him around the slides begging him to play in the splash zone instead, "Please? Pretty please?? Mama is melting, baby..." The good news is that he wore himself out and took a wonderful 2.5 hour nap, which is always a good thing!!


Colin is still changing so much everyday it seems...new words, new tricks and new accidents. He busted my lip wide open this morning by tossing Jer's PDA at me. I was laying in bed and Colin picked it up and threw it while sitting on my lap. He has gotten so much better with the throwing lately that I have started to let my guard down while he is holding heavy objects, which was obviously not a good plan. To look on the bright side, my bottom lip looks decidedly like Angelina Jolie's at the moment. Despite the war wound, Colin is getting a lot better at expressing himself without violence. Really. ;-) He is adding to his vocabulary every single day and forever surprising me with things he knows. He love love LOVES to cook with me. Whenever he sees me start to even head toward the kitchen, he runs into the laundry room, points at the step ladder we keep there and yells, "COOK!!". I will set the ladder where I am standing and he crawls up and starts to oversee and point things out. It takes me forever to get anything done, but he loves it so much that I let him. I think raising a man who loves to cook should get me a medal one of these days. It does run in the family, Jeremy is an excellent chef.


I will stop for the moment and leave you with some random photos...the lone shot of Colin and Gabby during their playdate on Monday and a couple of Colin and I during our endless sweaty playtime. Almost daily someone points out how much Colin resembles me and I can see it in the picture on the couch. When our heads are turned at the same angle, you can see our matching noses and smiles. Except that I missed out on the delicious dimples. Pooh! :-)

Stuck at Home

We are stuck at home today without a car, which is a royal pain. Yesterday I made the genius decision to run errands with Colin in what turned out to be a torrential downpour of epic proportions. It ended up storming so badly that I did not even make it inside the store with Colin and turned around and came home. During this pointless trek, I drove through several deep areas of standing water, which is when I managed to run over a huge industrial looking screw. I did not notice it at the time, but we walked out to a completely flat tire on our way to dinner last night. Jer is going to put on the spare when he gets home today and get it fixed late this afternoon. Thus, no car today. Colin and I have had a fun day regardless and he has been in his cutest form all afternoon! We decided to walk to the small pool that is a few doors down from our house. We don't use that pool in favor of all the splash parks and fountain pools that Colin loves, but since we were on foot, it made perfect sense today. Colin ended up having a blast splashing in the little kiddie pool and even more fun on the short walk to and and from our house. I took a couple of cute pictures of him, but the Oreo cream that managed to find it's way to my lens again sort of ruins the effect. ;-)


While we were swimming, Colin walked up to me out of the blue and put his arms around my neck. He proceeded to give me the absolute biggest and best hug I have ever gotten in my life. I did not ask for it and it was totally unprovoked...he just locked his baby arms around my neck and pressed his whole body into my chest with his wet little cheek mushed against my face. He held it for several seconds while I hugged him hard in return. I just don't know how I ever got along without this boy!

I'm Back....From Outer Space

As it turns out, I scared the majority of my friends and family with my last post. :-) I did not mean to freak everyone out! I just felt bad that it had been over a week since my last post and I thought I should tell my readers that I was just too busy to blog. Colin started screaming bloody murder as I was typing, so I had to cut it off. I should have elaborated!! There is absolutely nothing wrong with me that some sleep and a live-in nanny could not take care of. ;-)

The majority of the problem is that Colin is not sleeping. When Colin won't nap or go to bed, I don't have a chance to post. I am frankly tired of writing about sleep issues...I feel like I have written about it to the point that it is tedious. I will just leave it with the fact that I am slow to post when we are not sleeping around here.


I took Colin for a haircut today and decided on a whim to try a super short cut. The stylist spiked his hair at the end and he looked like a little man!!!! He looked so extremely grown up that I doubt I will be spiking his hair again in the near future! He is my baby, for heavens sake! :-) Here are some pictures of his awesome big dude hair:

In other news, our pools are open again!! We took Colin this evening for his inaugural 2009 swim and he had a blast. The water was frigid and it was pretty windy, but he still managed to have a blast. Afterwards we stopped for snow cones and a pizza from Papa Murphy's. The snow cones were also the first of the season and SO YUMMY! Colin shared with us and thought they were pretty great. Colin had his bath and washed all the pomade out of his hair and he once again looks like my boy. I like the short cut and think it will be perfect for summer. Check him out in the pictures from the pool...my little fishy! (and no more spikes!)

I am so glad the pools are open again! This gives us something to do that we both love...yea!! Colin has gone through some major changes lately (which I think contribute to his sleep patterns changing). He will no longer allow a bottle to come near him, when a week ago, he was still taking one at night. He talks up a storm now, with probably 50 words exploding over a week. Tonight, for example, Blue's Clue's was going off the air and Colin announced, "BYE BYE, BOOSE KOOSE!" That is not one of the shows we watch normally and it was just on in the background. But Colin said it as clear as day. It was crazy adorable. He says all kinds of things now that amaze me and notices tidbits to point out. If he sees anything that could possibly be used in a kitchen, he yells, "COOK!". If he sees a broom, vacuum, mop, or any cleaning tool, he yells, "CLEAN MESS!" It was so cute today as he was getting his hair cut....hair was falling all around and he starts yelling (loudly!) "OOOOHHHHH, MESSSSSS!!!!". So sweet!

We have also run headlong into the terrible two's. I swear we are going to be forced to stay away from society until this runs it course. It is time for bed, so I will save that part for another post. Let me just say that if your child skipped the terrible part, I don't want to hear it. :-)

The Cutest Little Baby Butt!

I decided to bust out the baby pool that I bought at Wal-Mart a couple of weeks ago. It certainly does not hold a candle to the big pool, but on the plus side, Colin can go diaper free! He had a great time splashing around. There is no doubt that he is my little fishy! You really have to click on the first picture to see his face...he LOVES it! :-)

Saturday at the Pool!

Saturday means that Jer is home, so the whole family headed out to the pool this afternoon! Well, the whole family minus the two idiot animals that live here. They were not invited. ;-)

Colin had a great time as usual...he is such a little fish! As you can see, he loves standing under that downpour of water, which just cracks me up. We took him in the deeper part also and he kicks his little legs just like he is swimming! He loves the water so much. Once an hour the lifeguards make everyone get out of the pool for a 10 minute break and Colin was just hanging out on his lounge chair, eating Cheerios and drinking water. I think he is going to be a beach fan just like his Mama! The pictures speak for themselves....I took the last shot so that everyone could see a little bit of the pool that I keep talking about. It is just a great time!

Just checking in

There is not much to report today in our little world. Colin and I packed up and ventured out to the big pool on our own, just the two of us. We had a great time together. The pool was full of little ones and their moms, so it was really nice. It was more fun for Colin without the bigger kids around and we enjoyed ourselves. Spending time in the sun is also making me feel so much better as of late...I am a sunshine/beach/pool girl all the way and it is amazing what a dose of Vitamin D will do for the soul. We had dinner at our little Mexican food place and Colin is now sleeping. We were a little late getting home so we were running about 30 minutes late on our bedtime routine. That sure does make a difference...it was much harder to get Colin down and I have a feeling that half hour will make for a rough night. It is tough living on such a strict schedule, but for Colin that is the only way to help him get the sleep he needs. I am becoming "The Sleep Nazi". :-)

Summer Lovin!

It is hotter than all get out in Texas this week, so we headed to the pool when Jer got home from work. I have a feeling that we are going to be spending a lot of time there this summer. It is just too hot to do much else! I am thanking my lucky stars that we decided to buy a home in a master planned community with all these great pools and parks. It makes for fun, free, child friendly entertainment. That is just about all I can ask for these days!! :-)

Colin goes swimming!

Today was Colin's very first time in a swimming pool! It was muggy and 95 degrees today, so when the sun started setting we took Colin to the pool that is a few doors down from the house. He loved it! It was his first time in cold water, so he was a little surprised at first, but once he got going in his float he was thrilled! What a great time!! These pictures may be the cutest I have ever taken...at least as of this moment. :-)